The Lyons Share

I've just got back from another trip to Ken Hill. Along with the structured surveys I am doing there, building a site list is also a key task. That means that casual records of species made when you are doing different jobs, or moving between plots, are extremely important. Such as this emerging Humming-bird Hawk-moth recorded on a large area of acid-grassland with some heath known as the Plain. Now these are not all that scarce as a migrant but I have never seen this before, an adult that had clearly still not taken its maiden flight. Last summer I saw an adult ovipositing on Lady's Bedstraw at Heyshott Down but this was a first for me. Annoyingly, my memory card broke so I only had my phone camera for much of this trip. However I took this shot and posted it on Twitter not thinking that much of it, three days later it reached 1000 likes and over 150 retweets. I think even the Calosoma sycophanta event only got about 300. Anyway, not bad for a phone shot!

I've now recorded over 700 invertebrates there this year and the list is rising all the time. Highlights included a new location on the site for Breckland and Fallen's Leatherbugs, the impressive wasp Podalonia affinis (also on the Plain), the Scarab Shieldbug, the unpronounceable Sphragisticus nebulosus (a new species for me). Also on the Plain (and cathartic as I caught one last month but it flew off before I could pot it) were my first stiltflies. They turned out to be the notable Micropeza lateralis. Also on the Plain, quite a few Hedychrum nobile. A not very impressive camera photo of a very impressive jewel wasp.

To the north of the site this very late Agapanthia villosoviridescens. It's usually a late May to June species.

We ran a moth trap on the Plain which would have been more successful if the generator hadn't kept cutting out. We did add a few species to the list such as this Vestal.

Always a pleasure to see Antler Moths (below) and True Lover's Knots too.

However it was the by-catch that proved most interesting. There were lots of aquatic bugs and beetles that were all new to the site, hundreds of Water Veneer moths too. Quite a few carabids came to light  but the best was Harpalus froelichii which I have only seen in the Brecks so far. Talking to Steve Gale I was expecting to see this at Ken Hill but as yet I had not knowingly picked it up. It's Nationally Rare, Near Threatened and S41 and adds to the Breck-like nature of the site's flora and fauna.

The vegetation structure and composition plots are now complete. I added a couple more arable plants to the list including another good one which was also a lifer and a 7 point scorer. This is my new favourite grass, Rye Brome which was confirmed by vice county recorder Richard Carter when we met up in the field. It's Vulnerable and nationally scarce. Along with Corn Mint (scores 1) that gets the site index for arable plants up to a whopping 113!!!

A couple of veteran trees were really impressive. This 6.5 m+ (that doesn't even include the 2.3 m branch on the right) girth Pedunculate Oak is one of the biggest I have ever seen.

And this Common Lime Tilia x europea was 4.31 m girth!

And a few fungi were about too, such as this Dyer's Mazegill on pine. I've started the NVC map now, so I will be doing some series footfall (this last trip was 42 miles) for the last two visits. Whatever will we find next month?! A huge thanks to the Padwick's, Richard Carter and everyone else at the Estate for their support and time and making it such a fun project.

I had my first weekend off in ages. What did I spend it doing? Looking for spiders. This blog was going to be called 'I have seen 300 species of spider this year!!!'. I needed six species. I worked all day and got one new spider. However the supporting cast of other inverts was far more exciting and I got some nice photos too. At Graffham Common, I swept some heather and young pine and in the first sweep got Scarce 7-spot Ladybird (Na) new to West Sussex (as far as I know it's only known from Flatropers, Chailey Common and Broadwater Warren). A couple of years ago I searched extensively for this in this area (it's only found within a few metres of Formica rufa nests). I think it's highly likely that this has only colonised in the last couple of years as there are more Formica rufa nests now. This in turn is down to the great work Sussex Widllife Trust have done to produce such amazing habitat. I saw three all day and walked right up to one. It's a different shape and has much bigger spots. Here is one next to the ubiquitous 7-spot Ladybird. 

The power of the spreadsheet we compiled really works not just as a snap shot but as a way of capturing constant effort. The proportion of inverts with conservation status could be assessed from a single survey yet a more accurate result can be made by the accumulative records of all surveys and casual records, the 'true' proportion being slowly converged on by this approach. Graffham Common is unusual in that it's now our fifth best site for this metric. Only Rye Harbour, Iping Common, Seaford Head and Malling Down have higher proportions, all of which are heavily designated sites. Graffham Common is only partly designated as a Local Wildlife Site. Findings yesterday actually increased this proportion from 10.5 to 10.8%. I've got the spreadsheet set up so all you need to do is plug in the year of the last record and this proportion (across all invertebrate groups) is calculated automatically. It's rather satisfying.

A lifer for me was this gruesome wasp. This is the female Methocha articulata, the first time I have seen this Nb species. It allows itself to be captured by a tiger beetle larva where it is grabbed by its armoured waist. It stings the larva then drags it back down its own burrow, lays its eggs on it, seals it in to its own burrow and well you can imagine. 

I also recorded Theridion pinastri (NS) new to all of Sussex! That's the 149th spider recorded there.

Not everything new had cons status (although a lot did). The Heather Shiedlbug is never easy to find but I recorded three adults and a dozen or more immatures yesterday, more than I have ever seen collectively before. Why? Well there were more Heather Beetle larvae yesterday than I have ever seen so I suspect this is what has attracted them in. They were very active and would not keep still.

And not new to the site but nice to see a male Stictoleptura rubra again.

I was hoping for Xysticus luctuosus (this being its only Sussex site). I didn't find it but here is a nice female Xytcius kochi.

And who doesn't love Evarcha arcuata? Such a poser.

And Uloborus walckenaerius is still knocking about. 

Elampus panzeri was a new site record.

Right at the end of the day though I saw this in my tray. Andromeda Lacebug, a new record for any Trust reserve (it's our 10,309th species) of this alien species from Japan. Now I have seen plenty of shots of this before and it's pretty strange looking from above...

...BUT LOOK AT IT FROM THE SIDE!!! What is going on with that fancy head work? It looks like it might as well be from the Andromeda Galaxy not Japan! What evil schemes is it hatching in there?! I had no idea, I thought it was flat! It's like the Eden Project grew legs and came to life. And then shrunk. And then turned black. OK, it's nothing like the Eden Project but this made my day. I love the little freak. Whatever will turn up next out there?

No, that doesn't work or make any sense but it's too late now, I've said it. I'm ashamed of myself. I think I've been watching too much Alan Partridge. Jane Willmott and I spent half an hour recording at the Warren today, part of our Burton Pond reserve. I saw a beatable branch of Douglas Fir and thought it worth a tap. A girl band's worth of ladybird species popped out instantly. Three of the four ladybirds above were new to the site! From Left to right we have Eyed, Cream-streaked, Larch and Pine Ladybirds. Pine was the only one we had previous records for.

We had a quick go with the suction sampler in a recently cleared and scraped area that is regenerating into a heathy/acid-grassland glade. We were amazed to witness a song fight between THREE singing Marsh Tits that descended into a massive rumpus. Agonum sexpunctatum, Arctosa perita and Anoplius viaticus were all present.

This nationally scarce spider was new to the site, Euryopis flavomaculata. I have very few records of this spider. It has the English name of Ant-tiger, which I really like. The 'wild card' names that don't fit a formula really appeal, it is in a genus of of its own though. It doesn't make a web and predates ants.

Also new to the site (and the year for me) was Enoplognatha thoracia. Another spider that wouldn't keep still.

Bathyphantes approximatus and (finally!) Erigone dentipalpis make my spider year list up to 124 and the site up to 107.

Yesterday was an epic day! I did visit 4 of the Iping and Stedham invertebrate survey. I picked up some 50 species in the first 30 minutes and this included some great charismatic species such as Woodland Grasshopper, Bee-wolf, Heather Shieldbug, Alydus calcaratus, Phytocoris insignis, Thomisus onistus, Vespula rufa, Mottled Grasshopper, Araneus sturmi (the 208th spider recorded there), Xysticus kochi (the 209th spider recorded there), Pilophorus clavatus (the first West Sussex record since 1997, my first and the first on an SWT reserve), Hydroporus melanarius (new to me and all SWT reserves) etc etc...and that was just on Stedham.

However, when we returned to a different area of Stedham later in the day with our Conservation Committee, I got rather excited when we stood in a purpose-made scrape looking for Marsh Club-moss. A tiny plume was barely visible in the vegetation. Having seen Sundew Plume before at Graffham Common last year, I know how easy it is to lose sight of one. So when I yelled "NOBODY MOVE" I was pleased to see that everyone ignored me and pounced on the moth! I managed to miss it with my net, only to find I had caught it all along and there were actually two individuals present! So all the Sundew Plumes recorded in Sussex in the last 20 years have been recorded on SWT reserves in areas that are actively managed! This shows how important early-successional habitat management is. This species couldn't survive without this long term. Grazing alone just wouldn't be enough to keep the M16 and sundews going.

I mentioned the Heather Shieldbug above. This is a real oddity. I have swept and swept and swept Heather at Iping and Stedham over the last ten years and I have never seen it before there (it was last recorded there in 2015 but not by me). Going through my database I have only two records for this species. Once sieved from Sphagnum at Burton Pond and the other sieved from a pile of birch brash in mid winter at Selwyns Wood in 2015. So this is the first I have swept one from Heather. However, even that isn't strictly true. The bug was clearly dead, it seems I swept it from a spider's web no doubt suspended between two Heather stems. I wonder why this bug is so hard to find? Could it be nocturnal? Any ideas?

I had a moth new to Iping, myself and the reserve network too, the sooty-black pyralid Matilella fusca.  Mike Edwards suggested I try looking on flowering Dodder for weevils and just by tapping one clump I dislodged a Thomisus onistus and a Smicronyx jungermanniae (my fourth new species for the day but know to the site). Whatever next?! Man, I love Sussex.

This is Ero tuberculata, a nationally scarce species that is mostly a heathland specialist. The individuals at Graffham are quite bright orange compared to ones I have seen before, they are very well camouflaged against the old flowers of Bell Heather and this is indeed what I swept it from. Yesterday we hosted a BAS field meeting but the weather wasn't great. I added eight spiders to the site list but these were mostly common ones. I've just had Andy's determinations in too and it just takes the site to 139 species, which makes Graffham our third best site for spiders! This is remarkable given that it was mostly under conifers five years ago. Here are some more shots of my Ero.

Andy added three species new to the entire reserve network, this included the ichneumon wasp that parisitises the larvae of Pine weevil being Dolichomitus tuberculatus. Amazingly Tegenaria silvestris had never been recorded on an trust reserve (which is crazy as we cover the spiders in intimate detail and have recorded 382 species so far). The best one though (that I didn't see) was Rugathodes instabilis. And that pretty much wraps up my invertebrate survey at Graffham for the year.

Yesterday I co-lead a contingent of around 70 people around Stedham & Iping Commons for the Heathlands Reunited project. Everyone was happy when they got to see a Hornet Robber-fly up close. Bee Wolves are everywhere and I saw FIVE adult Alydus calcaratus. After the group left I wanted to use the time wisely so I had another search for Heath Tiger Beetles. None have been seen this year (they are know to have two year life cycles and this would be expected to be a poor year) but just one adult would have made me relax. There was lots of good habitat and one suitable looking scrape I spotted a solid looking grey-mottled jumping spider...

So this is the first time I have had the pleasure of photographing one with my new camera and I tried a bit of video too. You HAVE to watch this, I think it's the cutest thing I have ever seen. "She looked at me longingly with those beautiful green eyes and waved coquettishly." You get the idea. I am in love. I think if I get a little tripod I can generate some really good videos with this camera in microscope mode. Problem is it doesn't seem to let you change the focus once you have committed to filming (so you have to move in and out). I was doing so by trying to keep the hairs on her head in focus.

And a first not only for the reserve but the reserve network! And one that I am county recorder for too. I beat a single Alloeotomus gothicus off Scots Pine. Pines on heaths can be a valuable resource, especially ones with low growing branches you can reach! I then got back to Woods Mill to find out about the first new vertebrate added to the reserves species list since I compiled it earlier this year. I wonder if you can guess what it was?!

Somewhere along the South Downs Way in deepest West Sussex is a small and isolated yet rich and diverse site managed by the Murray Downland Trust called the Devil's Jumps. So named for the sequence of five Bronze Age barrows that rise up from the site and have a rich chalk-grassland flora. Last weekend I started the fifth of sixth surveys there with Mike Edwards and it wasn't long until I swept what I initially though was a washed out Sphecodes. Then Mike became REALLY excited and shouted that's Andrena marginata! We hadn't even got close to the barrows at this stage and as we approached I saw the grassland was so dominated by Small Scabious that it only took seconds to find another two females. All in all we saw five females in total. Although currently considered nationally scarce (Na) this bee is one of the most declined bees in Europe and is therefore a hugely significant find for the survey. As the bee is only taking pollen from Small Scabious, its pollen baskets are white. Quite unlike the other rare bee on scabious, Andrena hattorfiana, which has pink pollen baskets from the Field Scabious/Greater Knapweed that it feeds on.

We went on to Heyshott Down itself and despite masses of Small Scabious, there were very few bees there at all. However, almost every flower of Wild Carrot had one of these wasps on it being Tiphia femorata. We also saw several Nomada flavopicta. Three new aculeates for me in one day! I'm up to 330 species for the survey so far and I still have all Mike's idents, my idents and this month's notes to write up!

Peter Marren literally wrote the book on Britain's rare flowers, so it was a great honour to show him three rare plants that he had never seen before, all on Amberley Wildbrooks and all (in hind sight) within a square metre of a single ditch. Peter is on a quest to see all of the native plants in the UK and is only about 50 or 60 species away from achieving this goal. 

Above is Peter with handfuls of the very rare Sharp-leaved Pondweed Potamogeton acutifolius. The first of our three rare plants and the most widespread on site, growing in most ditches which have some open water in them.

The highlight was of course Cut-grass Leersia oryzoides. An assuming grass with a subtle beauty that is widespread around the site and is flowering well, this year. I've never seen it flowering before, my search image is focused on looking for the upper leaf terminating the plant, often pointing straight up like a spear. ALL my photos, yet again, came out badly for this grass which is as hard to photograph as it is to spot. The third and final plant was the hardest to find but the commonest species nationally being Hairlike Pondweed Potamogeton trichoides.

It was great to spend time with such a like minded naturalist, I even managed a tick of my own, a male Crabro cribrarius wasp. I leave you with my photo of Pasque Flower, inspired by the cover of Peter's book, that I took at Therfield Heath many years ago...

Which actually means a first for TWO counties, even more significant than a county first really. This rather stunning creature is the Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni which we recorded at Burton Pond on Tuesday. In fact, this summer's Voluntary Trainee Ecologist, Adrian Holloway spotted it sitting on a young Alder tree and he should be very pleased, as it's almost certainly the first record in the south east of England for many years! Despite looking at plenty of suitable habitat, we only found one specimen. What a great find. The species has recently had a bit of a come back in the north of England and has the status RDBK, which means we don't really know what is going on with this species! Has it clung on in the south east undetected, is it an immigrant or maybe even an introduction, we just can't say other than it's clearly not common down here. We also saw a number of aculeates using the scrapes at Welch's Common including the Na Crabro scutellatus which I have only seen once before in the New Forest.

The invertebrate survey we are conducting at our land holdings at Burton Pond this year is proving to be quite interesting, with nearly 400 species recorded so far from four visits and with many flies and aculeates still to be added to this total. We have had one beetle new to Sussex and one spider new to West Sussex so far. Whatever will this incredibly varied site turn up next?!

You've guessed it, I've been fungaling around (I hate the phrase 'fungal foray', it's so twee!) up at Oxshott Common. This area of Surrey is known to be the most heavily recorded site for fungi in the world, with over 3000 species being recorded there. So it was quite surprising to find this species new to the site only a few metres from the car park. It's the scarce bracket Plicatura crispa.

Everyone knows Turkeytail but this was a particularly smart specimen worthy of a photo. I see this fungus more than any other.

This was a new one for me, Leafy Brain. It's actually growing out of other bracket fungi!

And here is a fungus that looks like a bracket but isn't. It's the Oyster Rollrim growing out of pine, another new species for me. I added fifteen species in all (12 fungi, two moths and a gall wasp) with the help of the WWFRG and Tony Davis. I end the day on 4680 species.

Now for a bit of a rant. If there are any dog walkers reading that frequent Oxshott Common, or any other site for that matter, and you always take your dog's muck away, you can read on, smug in the knowledge that none of what I am about to say applies to you. I salute you. If however, you are one of the small minority who let their animals do their business in the woods for people like me to walk in, PICK YOUR DAMN MESS UP AND TAKE IT AWAY WILL YOU!?! Apart from the huge negative effects of years of nutrient input on the ecology, it's utterly disgusting. I could barely hold on to my breakfast at times today, it literally ruined the atmosphere. If I ever catch anyone letting their dog do this, I'll happily place the offending article in your pocket for you so you can take it away. But there in lies the problem. YOU NEVER SEE IT HAPPENING! Is there a secret code? Pick it up if there are people about but leave it where it falls if no one can see you? There were a number of such turds with my name on today, waiting silently in the woods for me to come innocently by. I'll catch someone one day though, no doubt when years of accumulated vitriol will come spewing out in a poorly judged way. In the mean time, I'll just go and breathe into a paper bag for a while. Preferably one with air freshener in it.